One hundred days of inaction

Poynton Terrace wall, Tuesday June 6, 105 days after being painted out by Auckland Council

When Mayor Len Brown took office on November 1st last year, he decided to talk big. He came up with 100 projects in 100 days, aiming to show how he planned to get stuck in to Auckland's issues. It was a bold plan, and it worked, by and large. One of those items was to launch an anti-tagging initiative.

On Thursday February 24, Len Brown and the Auckland Council painted over an art mural in Poynton Terrace in the CBD without permission. This wall had been a regular painting spot for artist Elliot O'Donnell aka Askew, for ten years. He'd worked hard to develop a good relationship with the building owners, tenants and neighbours. Len Brown and his Council destroyed a successful community artwork in an afternoon. Read more about what happened here.

Brown fronted up and admitted that it had been a mistake, but never explained why a Council anti-graffiti volunteer had managed to get this wall painted out.

Brown appeared on TVNZ7's Media 7 on 17 March (watch it here) and was asked three times to explain why Council's graffiti prevention officer Rob Sheilds had approached the building owner to offer creative advice and a list of artists for the replacement mural (well outside his job description) - Brown dodged the question, instead talking about wanting to make sure Council followed due process, and that ultimately it was the owners decision about what goes on their wall.

Brown said he would sort this out and make it right, but 100 days later, this wall is still grey.

I have been told that Council is consulting with interested parties, which could take months, or years. Meanwhile, Askew has offered to repaint the wall for FREE. What's the hold up, Mr Mayor?



ADDED June 29: The Auckland Council has put out a call for expressions of interest from artists to replace the mural. See The Big Idea. The Council's Public Art Team say on their Facebook page that "we'd welcome an EOI from Askew. The bonus is that whomever is awarded the contract will get an artists fee, and materials paid, so won't have to fund it out of their own pocket."

That's not a bonus - that's what Len Brown undertook to do after admitting the Council made a mistake painting out the mural. Askew and friends paid for that mural out of his own pocket for ten years.

ADDED The EOI document says "...the building owner may give preference to a design with a historical theme... The design should not incorporate elements that could be mistaken for vandalism... The building owner asks that the mural is not signed..."

Dr Who?

Great ska/dub take on the Dr Who theme from this 8 piece band from Bristol. Also came out as an exclusive release for Record Store Day this year on 7", via Tru Thoughts. Two versions, one with wicked UK MC Tenor Fly on the mic. Buy it from Juno Download

Doctor Who (feat Tenor Fly) by Smerins Anti-Social Club

Doctor Who (Instrumental) by Smerins Anti-Social Club

Kaiser thief

UK band the Kaiser Chiefs quietly released a new album this week. They claimed they'd slipped it out to avoid leaks. It's also been reported the band  "...have come up with a brilliant new concept to release their latest album, which allows users to upload their own cover and even make money for themselves by becoming sales people for the band and earning £1 per album they sell via social media channels." (Source: TNW)

The only catch is that someone else had the idea before them. 

"According to the The Wall Street Journal story, Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs “hatched the scheme ‘over a drunken night in a fish and chips shop’ with a friend, Oli Beale, who works in the London office of Portland-based ad agency Wieden & Kennedy.”

As many people have pointed out in the last 24 hours, there’s more than a passing similarity between the supposed product of Wilson and Beale’s drunken chip-shop brainstorm and Chris Holmes’ The Privateer Manifesto, which was first published by The Daily Swarm earlier this year..."

And here's the kicker - the band admit that fans selling the album will make more money of it than they will.  Who knows, this idea may be something that both Holmes and the band arrived at independent of each other.

Radio Gaga

Couple of takes on the future of the album...

Gaga numbers indicate that albums are now secondary
Analysis from NY Times.

"A paradox of the new music industry: Albums sell less and less well every year, but as a marketing tool they are now more important than ever.

Gaga numbers prove the vitality of albums
Analysis from Billboard.biz.

"Maybe the album format isn't ready to die just yet. Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" sold 1.11 million units in its first week of release and has moved another 4.28 million digital tracks. It's the first album in 18 months to sell over one million units in a single week. These numbers suggest the old way of selling music-and perhaps not the album format itself - is what's dying in the record industry.

The pirates are coming

Rhys Darby as a pirate radio DJ in the movie The boat that rocked (aka Pirate radio)

Local comedian and Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby will front a new anti-piracy campaign, distributed online and via DVD to schools... see "Top comic joins piracy fracas", Dominion Post.

This promo video comes before the new copyright law comes into effect in September, which will allow rights holders "to force internet providers to pass on infringement notices to customers who they believe they have caught accessing pirated material."

"On the third warning, rights holders will be able to make internet providers pass the customer's details to the Copyright Tribunal, which will be able to impose fines."

Chief executive of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFact) Tony Eaton said NZFact had been keen for Mr Darby to front its anti-piracy campaign to promote a "softer more relevant image" and because of his personality. "He says a few quirky jokes."

"InternetNZ said in its submission that it struggled to see why rights holders should be allowed to profit in cases where people pirated works that they had chosen not to sell in New Zealand but that they did sell overseas."

This is one of the key problems with rights holders choosing to prosecute their audience, instead of giving them access to what they want, when they want. Controlling your content by territory simply makes it impossible for people to access it.

For more on this, read Paul Brislens piece "How about giving people what they want?"

Let's hope the video doesn't end up looking like this...

Lykke Li vs the Shirelles

Gorgeous version. Spotted on Flavourpill's story 10 Crazy-Good Covers You’ve Probably Never Heard

RIP Martin Rushent

Via BBC: Music producer Martin Rushent, who worked with bands including the Human League and the Stranglers has died, aged 63. Rushent started as an engineer in the 1970s, working on records by T-Rex and Fleetwood Mac among others. He produced the Human League's hit album Dare, which contained the classic "Don't You Want Me?".

From a 1982 interview with Rushent... Hat tip to Nabeel for this...

"On a recent trip to New York City, I had an opportunity to interview the infamous Martin Rushent. Martin has produced countless bands (Human League, Altered Images, Yachts…) over the years, as well as being the Buzzcock’s primary producer. At present, he is working incredibly hard with launching Pete Shelley’s solo career, as well as his newly formed Genetic Records label. I found him to be honest, genuinely nice, and most of all, enthusiastic. I have no doubts that he’ll achieve all he sets out to do. Having long been my “idol,” I felt it time to get some personal remarks from him.

FFanzeen: How did you get into the field of producing?
Martin Rushent: Around 10 or 11 years old, I got my first record player. I used to listen to a lot of records; Buddy Holly – and I noticed that some records had an exciting edge to them, some sounded better than others. I think after that I began to pick up on names; Spector and the like. By 12 or so, I was in a school band and learning to work equipment… and I started to find it more interesting than actually performing. The result was my working toward becoming a producer in the end. Now, after all this time, I find myself drifting into a more artistic vein.

Read it in full here.

High Noon Tea playlist, KiwiFM

Replays on Friday, 2-4pm NZT, listen online.

Illphonics - One of those days
International observer - Cellphone dub
50Hz - Skiddy dub
Jefferson Belt - Skylurking
The Yoots - E papa waiari
Projector - Principle dub
Sola rosa - Turn around - DJ Vadim
Dam native - Behold my kool style
Recloose - Why I otta
Tubbs - T's groove
Shogun orchestra - Jacmel
Open souls - Sweet love - Mabanua remix
Tehimana Kerr - Xit
Lord Echo - Thinking of you
Dub terminator meets Ras Stone - Bad mind
Black seeds - Slingshot - Truth remix
Salmonella dub - Problems - Sonsine remix
Lewis McCallum - The almanac
Jet jaguar - Octo test
Phase 5 - Mothman skank - Wasabi wakeup mix
Alphabethead - The crawling thing
Conray - 7th folding space
Eru Dangerspiel - Chilli moules
Julien Dyne - Steel legs 11

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, June 4

Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren band - Savannah
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Victorious dub
Johnny Osbourne - Budy bye
Black brothers - Give me loving
Candy Mckenzie and the upsetters -Long enough
Junior Murvin and the upsetters - Get ready
Manasseh - Zion city
Richie Phoe - Eyes on the dub
Woima collective - Woima
Charles Bradley  -Why is it so hard?
Chaka Khan  -Life is a dance'
Black blood - Chicano
Gay flamingoes steel band - Catapilla (This song got an interesting response, via text - "What IS this?! just turned the radio on and this is the first thing I hear. I WANT MORE.")
Tom tom club  -Genius of love
Louis Jordan - Aint nobody here but us chickens - DJ Premier remix
Hawk - Dont judge a book by tis cover
Myron and E and the Soul investigators - Cold game
Oddisee - That day feat Muhsinah
Nicolette - Single minded vocal
Barrington Levy - Looking for love
Turntable dubbers - Get lively now - Dreadsquad remix
45nm - Biscuits
Architeq - Birds of dub
Rhythm and sound w Sugar Minott - Let Jah love come
Roots Radics - Babylon wrong
Collen and Webb - Golden
Gil Scott Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane
Esther Phillips - Home is where the hatred is
Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of your love
The Horne singers - Flat foot

Riot Riddum live!

Roland (L), Bobbylon. Photo: Sonoma Message. Published in Planet, 1991

Riot Riddum Sound System (2R2S) was based around my old mates Bobbylon and Roland from Hallelujah Picassos, along with guests on the mic such as Termoana Rapley, Paulette Edwards (ex Strawpeople), Pip (Blue Marbles), Tosh (Semi Lemon Kola), Justin and Twitch. Riot Riddum Sound System started out as a side project for them with both DJing and taking turns on the mike, Roland in his gruff style,  and Bobbylon with his melodious 'singjay' style. They recorded on the Deepgrooves label.

They have been approached to spin some tunes in a DJ/MC style this weekend, at the Punky Reggae Party, on Sunday at The Kings Arms. It's been a while since 2R2S stood behind the decks so this should be a lot of fun.

Punky Reggae Party 2011 
FEATURING: The Iron Hammers feat Silva Emcee, The Solomonix + Jah Red Lion, The Lager Louts, The Last Rockers, Atsushi and The Mini Moisties, Riot Riddum Sound System, Earthtone Hi Fi feat Selecto, Printor and El Folio, Obelix, Artofficial, Peter Mac, Dubhead and Iron Will + drink specials and hot food.  
From 3pm $10 /$20 after 6pm

BACK AGAIN>>>> GO TELL YA FRIENDS>>>> 2R2S


This song below marks their recording debut, and was recorded and produced as part of a marathon nine days of recording sessions fronted by Mark Tierney at the desk.

Eight songs ended up on the debut 'Deep Grooves' compilation release from the Deepgrooves label, which, when it started, was three partners - sound engineer Mark Tierney, Bill Latimer (owner of The Lab recording studio, where the sessions took place) and Kane Massey, who eventually took over the label when the other two partners left.



Other acts on the debut compilation were Sound Foundation, Straw People, Rhythm and business (Daniel Barnes and George Hubbard), Jules Issa (covering Dangerous Game, featured in a previous post), DLT meets the Projector (aka Mike Hodgson, later of Pitch Black), Nemesis Dub System, and Love and bass featuring Christine Fuemana.

The compilation is a landmark recording for capturing the incredible hiphop/reggae musical collisions going on in clubs and parties across central Auckland at the time, predating the Welly dub scene by at least a decade. It's vitally important music that for the most part hasn't dated in  the least. And it's sadly out of print.

Pitch Black rarities and goodies

Out June 13, a swag of remixes and rarities from Pitch Black. Preview below. You get Pitch Black remixing Salmonella Dub, Katchafire, Tiki and others, plus the very first track Mike and Paddy ever worked on together, The Wanderer, from 96.

There's also a free live album from Pitch Black on Bandcamp too. Grab it here.

Mo Oddisee

Oddisee dropped his Odd Seasons album recently. To celebrate, he's offering a few bonus instrumentals for free download.
Support the new Oddisee album at itunes and ughh and Fat Beats and emusic. Vinyl coming soon!